A brave all-female fighting force waging war in Iraq has become the worst fear of the murderous fanatics of ISIS.
The Kurdish militias have earned the seething hatred of the terror group, which sees women as objects to be enslaved, raped and terrorised.
But at the same time, they fear them.
As well as the threat posed by the women's bravery and skill on the battlefield, the militants are terrified that dying at the hands of a female will stop them from reaching heaven.
The 2nd Battalion, a 500-strong force based in Sulaymaniyah in Kurdistan, northern Iraq, is led by Colonel Nahida Ahmad Rashid, 49.
"It's a weapon for us," she told The Sun.
"They don't like to be killed by us."
However, she says her soldiers must never allow themselves to be captured by ISIS, usually contemptuously called 'Daesh' in the Middle East, as they face torture and rape at their hands.
In fact, her fighters are always careful to leave a bullet in their weapons to use on themselves if it looks like they will be taken.
The fear ISIS has of the female Kurd fighters was demonstrated when ISIS claimed to have beheaded the poster girl of the Kurdish militia’s battle for freedom in Syria in October.
The female fighter, known only by the name Rehana, became famous after a picture of her making the peace sign went viral on Twitter.
She is said to have killed more than 100 jihadists in the battle for the strategically important town of Kobane, on the Turkey-Syria border.
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ISIS claimed that a photo of a grinning rebel holding a woman’s severed head was evidence that she was dead.
But Kurdish journalist Pawan Durani said it was untrue, and a desperate ploy by the terrorists.
He wrote: "Rehana is very much alive.
"ISIS supporters just trying to lift morale.
"Tigress is hunting for more.
"Let ISIS produce even a single picture of Rehana.
"Propaganda and falsehood runs in their blood.
"Rehana keeps hunting them."
She became a symbol for the Kurdish resistance movement against Islamic State when Pawan tweeted her picture on October 13.
The Kurdish women's militias are also admired because they promote equality in a region that has long struggled with women's rights.
Private Renas Jamal, 23, tells me: "We fight like men and die like men.
"My cousin was martyred fighting Daesh.
"She was very brave."
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